Game Changer Suite

The Game Changer Suite is an interactive installation that includes five multiplayer games. The players are detected by a laser tracking system installed in the room and can control their virtual avatars by moving in the space. The five games use different game mechanics and thus offer a variety of entertainment. The players get to decide which game they want to play next via a democratic voting system which also works by changing the actual position in the room.

Game Changer was exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival 2014 in Linz.


About

The GameChanger Suite was developed by students at the Hagenberg campus of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. The focus of the GameChanger project is to explore cooperative and competitive gameplay in a co­located setting.

So-called serious games and other game-based solutions to problems have achieved notable successes in recent years when called upon to tackle a wide variety of problems—for instance, analyzing huge data sets or motivating XXL couch potatoes to get more exercise. Nevertheless, there’s hardly been any improvement in the framework conditions for the interaction of a lot of players in one and the same real space—it’s still gaming’s terra incognita.

Game Changer boldly goes forth into this unexplored domain. Each of the five games functions only by means of players’ physical presence and movements, and makes possible multifarious varieties of collaborative gaming.